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Drink

The Importance of Ice – A Tale of Two Drinks

Not so very long ago, Brad Gubbins of the Toronto Institute of Bartending
introduced me to the Bramble, a lovely spring cocktail if I’ve ever had one.

While many cocktail origins are fuzzy and, often apocryphal, the Bramble’s is
not. It was invented in Soho (London) by a bartender named Dick Bradsell. It
seems like a fairly simple drink: shake some gin, lemon and simple syrup
together, pour over ice and then top with blackberry liqueur. However, there is
one slightly complicated part: it must be made with finely crushed ice.

Bars often overlook the shape and quality of ice. If I ever get my own little
cocktails and dreams spot open, that won’t be my mistake. I’m committed to good
ice and at least three different sizes. Think I’m taking this too far? Not at
all. In fact the reason for quite a few failed drinks is the ice.

First off, you want fresh ice. Consider throwing out all that pesky food that
might give your ice a bad smell. If you can’t do that, though, make sure you
refill your trays frequently. We’re not winning any environmentalist awards for
any of this, I’m sure, but we try to remember to dump them about every other
day. I can’t abide freezer smell in my cocktails. And I shouldn’t even have to
point out that the better the water, the better the ice.

Cubes are fine for shaking. And, indeed, even the Bramble is fine to shake with
good old pedestrian cubes – didn’t mean to mislead you. Just make sure the cubes
are nice and cold – fresh out of the freezer and don’t be trying to re-use ice
in several cocktails. A lot of people also try to use the shaking ice in the
cocktail. Another no-no. That’s why the cocktail shaker has a strainer.

After shaking, you should always pour on to new, fresh ice and, depending on the
drink, you want to vary the size of that ice. Which brings me back to the
Bramble or any other summery, slushy drink. Think of a daiquiri. You wouldn’t
attempt to serve that on the rocks, right? Same with a Bramble which has three
distinct tastes – beginning, middle and end – thanks to the melting ice.

Crushing ice is simple. I have a hand-crank ice crusher, which is noisy, clumsy
and awkward, but I put up with because of the beautiful and consistent ice it
produces. These can be bought fairly cheaply. Cheaper yet is wrapping ice in a
towel and pounding it with a mallet.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Old Fashioned or the Sazerac, which were
precisely the two drinks I was allowed to choose between on my most recent trip
to Sidecar. Bill Sweete set up the options and Casey Bee did the mixing. I
understood why I wasn’t allowed to choose anything else once I saw the drink
since Sweete and Bee are rightly proud of their new, lovely, large cubes of ice
in my first-rate Old Fashioned. I’m going to say it was one large cube and that
it was about the size of a tennis ball but, really, it’s been a long time since
I played tennis.

This matters to us cocktail geeks because of the surface area of the ice and how
quickly the drink is getting watered down. We all get that as long as our drinks
are getting cooler, they’re also being diluted, but the rate of dilution can be
controlled and, with some drinks, especially whiskey-based ones, slowing down
the process is really important. There’s nothing worse than rushing through your
Old Fashioned in fear of it turning into a puddle of whiskey-flavoured water. If
you want to savour the changing flavours, you need a nice big chunk of ice.

Once you hear someone’s philosophy of ice (or try a drink made properly with a
big cube) it makes a lot of sense. So no more excuse. Throw out that old
freezer-burnt ice and get the mallet out.

But don’t stick your tongue on the ice. At least not until it’s in the drink.